HomePath Ready Buyer Offers 3% Down Program with Closing Assistance for First-Time Home Buyers

Fannie Mae’s new HomePath Ready Buyer program offers first-time home buyers the opportunity to put as little as 3% down and get up to 3% of the purchase price back in the form of closing cost assistance on Fannie Mae-owned HomePath properties.

The Quicken Loans Conventional Product Manager Justin Herring said this new program is a real win for first-time home buyers.

“While Fannie Mae hasn’t announced an end date for this program, I would encourage clients to take advantage of this great offer now,” Herring said. “Rates are near historic lows.”

Sounds good right? We think so, too. There are a couple of things you need to know so you can qualify.

Eligibility Details

The assistance Fannie Mae provides can go toward closing costs, points, prepayment of expenses and reimbursement of your buyer education course fee. There are a few eligibility requirements:

You must be a first-time home buyer.

The home must be your primary residence within 60 days of closing.

Tenants in tenant-occupied properties are eligible to buy homes through the program.

The home must be a Fannie Mae-owned HomePath property.

HomePath Properties

In order to qualify for this deal, the property must be owned by Fannie Mae. Luckily, you can find listings for these properties on the HomePath site. You can input the location you’re looking for, and your desired number of bedrooms and bathrooms. You’re also able to specify a minimum and maximum price.

Buyer Education

Prior to making your initial offer, you have to complete a buyer education course designed to prepare you to get your mortgage loan. The nine-module course covers topics like these:

Avoiding common problems

Determining how much you can afford

How to decide which home is right for you

The cost of the course is $75. If you do end up purchasing a HomePath home, this fee is reimbursed when the loan is closed. Fannie Mae says most people complete the course in 4 – 6 hours. If you have a co-borrower, only one of you must complete the course.

The Offer Process

After you complete the course, you’re ready to make an initial offer. There are a few differences between making an offer on a HomePath home and a regular offer.

You cannot purchase a HomePath property without going through a real estate agent. If you don’t have an agent already, Fannie Mae provides contact info for agents on the property page, or you could check out Rocket Homes to find one in your area.

In order to be eligible for the program, your agent should also request closing cost assistance from Fannie Mae at the time the initial offer is made. Your agent will make the offer online and attach your HomePath Ready Buyer course completion certificate.

Are you interested in buying a home through this new program? If you have any questions, let us know in the comments!

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This Post Has 97 Comments

I’m a little unclear regarding Homepath and their closing cost assistance. From my understand, I’m currently receiving 6% concession rolled into my loan to offset my out-of-pocket closing costs. However, in the long run it’s still being paid by me.

Prior to making an offer on the home, Homepath looped me into paying $75 to take a course that they assured would be reimbursed in the closing assistance. But if I’m essentially paying for the closing, how am I being reimbursed? Is there something I’m missing here?

My agent accidentally submitted my offer and forgot to let me finish my course. Can he add my certificate and correct my offer? Also, can this be combined with a bond first-time homebuyer assistance program I qualified for too?
Thanks!

I owned a house within the last 3 years but my wife was not listed on the mortgage. I sold the house in 2016.
My wife and I are buying a new house this year. Would my wife qualify for the 3% closing cost assistance through Homepath since she was not listed on the mortgage from the previous house? (Both of our names will be on this mortgage) Thanks.

What if I currently own an owner-occupant multi-unit by myself through FHA. Since the purchase in 2014, my family size has drastically extended and expecting soon. The multi-unit space is too small for my extended family size, can I use the Fannie Mae product, HomeReady to purchase a primary residence?

Most first-time home buyer products require that you don’t own any property in the last three years. That being said, we may have other good options available for you. I do recommend you talk to one of our Home Loan Experts by filling out this form or calling 888-728-4702. We are off today in observance of Christmas, but someone will be happy to talk in the morning. Happy holidays!

Hello, if we complete the home path education course and decide to wait on a better home. How long is the certificate valid ? In other words, is there an expiration date? Does it matter if you entered a specific mortgage company on the certificate (which is required, the decide to use another company? Will the same certificate be valid for this purpose?

Why am I being charged a Fannie Mae fee around $6300 in addition to my closing costs including quicken loan fees? Is this only happening to me? My closing cost is>$16,000. Why is that? I have a conventional loan and putting down 20%.

The standard minimum on conventional loans through us is 620. This program has no additional information showing different credit requirements. If you’d like to speak to one of our Home Loan Experts who can give you more info and go over your situation properly, you can fill out this form or call (888) 728-4702.

Your required to pass 80% of the course you you don’t you will not get your money back and you do not get the certificate. Even if you failed at 79%. I had a 77% so that means I no good to hae help from Fannie Mae.

Thanks for the info! This is good for people to know. I would try to take the course again if I were you. Odds are your closing costs are a lot more than the $75 you lost and you can get reimbursed for the cost of the second course if you pass.

I am seeking consult and guidance with one of your ” Home Loan experts” at Quickenloans on the US HUD Federal incentive program branded as HomePath. As the herewithin discussion threads have indicated, if a FANNIE MAE home is chosen to be financed, the purchaser meets elegibility criteria. Considering First time homebuyers who have invested the $75 to certify and successfully educate them self ( thereby reducing the ratio of lender risk – )
*at the initial purchase agreement offer the request of up to 3% closing cost assistance and the $75 training cost has been made available to the purchaser through participating and cooperating lenders.
Thank you Quickenloans

We can absolutely help you get in contact with a mortgage banker. You can do so by filling out this form or calling 888-728-4702. I can tell you that everything you’re saying about the program is correct. If you buy a HomePath home at the end, you’re reimbursed the cost of the training course and you can get assistance with up to 3% of the closing cost.

The Fannie Mae website doesn’t say anything about certain types of foreclosures being exempted from the program. It does say that the house has to be eligible, but I think this is something you find out for sure during the offer process. It doesn’t appear to matter what type of mortgage was on the home. I hope this helps!

In order to get the closing cost assistance from Fannie Mae, you take this first-time home buyer training course. Then, you make the request for closing assistance when you put the offer in. You don’t have to pay for a list of properties. They’re available on HomePath.com.

Have a pre approval with Quicken for an FHA loan. Asked my lender associate Bobbie Mae about this home ready program and she said she couldn’t help? Clearly Quicken can…how do I fix this, given I am working with Quicken now?

Loan programs often have certain requirements that don’t work for everyone in every situation. That said, I’m going to pass this on and we can have someone look at all your options and explain where you’re at. Thanks for reaching out!

I am approved for 185k fha..I did the American dream program for Assistance.. I just found a house I am interested in that’s Fannie Mae..
Can I use my American dream program Assistance to help buy this house or do I need to do the Fannie Mae program..
The house needs work before I can get my co.thanx mike

We generally don’t do any loans with down payment assistance programs, but I’m going to have someone reach out. We may be able to help you run the numbers and determine whether it’s better for you to remain on your current path or go with this Fannie Mae option.

Hi,
If I find a Fannie mae property that needs some renovation work, how would I go about getting a loan to complete the work? Is there any loan that would allow me to buy the house and fix it up all in one loan?

This isn’t something that we specifically offer, but I know the FHA has something called a 203K loan that does just what you’re looking for. The only thing that worries me is whether or not you can get the closing cost assistance, but that’s something you can definitely ask Fannie Mae. Hope this helps!

I want to know if you are on a fixed income can you still apply and can you use the people’s income that stays in your home and do you have to have money in the bank and what is the credit score that you have to have I talk to different quick loans people and they act like they don’t know anything about the program can some one help me if there is a program and who do I need to talk with cause I need a house thanks

I’m sorry to hear about your experience with us. We offer various loan options, but the requirements tend to be specific to each one. I’m going to forward this to someone and we can help you look into your options and see if there’s anything we can do. They’ll be reaching out.

I’m going to have someone reach out to you. You may have a couple of options to keep closing costs down including lender credits or rolling the costs into the balance by paying more for the house and having the seller pay for the closing costs as concessions in return.

According to Fannie Mae, you have to apply for the closing cost assistance at the time of the initial offer, but I’m going to forward this to one of our Home Loan Experts to see if there’s anything we can do to help you here. Someone will be in contact with you.

Wondering how this turned out… We submitted an offer yesterday on a property we adore, and our realtor recommended that we ask for $5,000 paid by seller for closing costs. Technically it’s less than 3% of the homes value, but I am just now reading that we can take this course and virtually attempt the same thing, just labeled “closing assistance”. Am I understanding this right? Do we have a chance even though we did not complete the course and just entered “Amount for closing costs”

Worse comes to worse I assume if the offer gets denied we can then in turn take the class and re-submit an offer with the class certificate attached, correct?

For the Home Path Buyer Ready program- should the 3% closing cost assistance reduce your offer by that same 3%?
I completed the on-line $75 Home Path Buyer Ready program hoping to take advantage of the 3% closing cost assistance. But, when I submitted my offer, the paper work showed that my offer was actually reduced by the 3%, making my net offer 3% less! This does not seem right to me. Has anyone else taken advantage of this program?

I’m not sure how this 3% incentive is factored in during the offer process, but I’m going to get this to one of our Home Loan Experts to help figure this out. They’ll be in contact. Thanks for reaching out!

I am also interested to know if asking for closing costs through the Ready Buyer program, reduces the offer amount. We are in a multiple offer situation and need to know how the Seller paid closing costs affect the value of our offer.

As to your first question, as long as the house is listed on the HomePath site as a property owned by Fannie Mae, you can get the closing cost assistance through this program. The second question I’m not totally sure about, but I’m going to forward it to one of our Home Loan Experts.